Posted by: Mark () on Wed Jul 25 18:23:49 2001

The big reason to move to the left side, if she is fast, is not the reasons you mentioned, but rather because of the nature of fastpitch and the shorter distance between bases. There is a lot more you can do from the left side in fastpitch since the short bases make the short game much more successful than in baseball. If you can hit away from the left side, sac bunt, running drag, running bunt, running soft slap and running hard slap, you will be a huge problem for a fastpitch defense assuming you have reasonable speed. Too many right handed speedsters move to the left side, develop the short speed game and never really learn to drive it from the left side. If you are fast enough, this can even net you some college money, but if you don't want to top out someday, you have to be able to keep the defense honest by proving you can drive the ball. If you can learn to drive it with some power in addition to all the short skills, well, now you will have your pick of colleges.

Mark